Are Olympics in the cards for NYC in 2024?

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Should New York City mount another Olympic bid?

Seven years after losing the 2012 Games to London, the Big Apple is being mentioned by the United State Olympic Committee (USOC) as a possible contender for the 2024 Summer Games.

And the international climate could be right for a U.S.-hosted Games.

Staten Island Advance File PhotoPANEPINTO: International ill will over the Iraq War killed New York's 2012 bid. Now? "I'd like to see' Games come to NYC in 2024.

"I'd like to see it," said Staten Islander Joseph Panepinto, who was a member of the USOC for 16 years, including the time when New York lost its 2012 bid.

The USOC might also bid on the 2026 Winter Olympics.

USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said that looking at 2024 and 2026 "allows us to form partnerships with all the people who need to be involved in a bid. That would allow us to put our best foot forward."

Chairman Larry Probst said, "This gives us further time to develop relationships with the IOC," because the bids are won as much through relationships as the pros and cons of the cities themselves.

Other possible candidates for 2024 are Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Chicago and Dallas.

The United States hasn't hosted the Games since the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The last time the Summer Games were here was Atlanta in 1996.

Panepinto said that international ill will over the Iraq War killed New York's 2012 bid.

"Our standing was so damaged," he said.

But he said that the USOC has gone a long way toward smoothing over relations around the world, including settling a dispute over the sharing of U.S. television revenue.

"There's been a tremendous amount of work by the USOC to repair our international standing," he said. "It's possible that a U.S.-hosted Games could happen. It could get enough support to be a winner."

Still, Panepinto said, hosting an Olympics is "a massive undertaking. It's all-consuming for the city involved."

Could New York do it?

"Sure," Panepinto said. "But is it feasible?"

One stumbling block, he said: The waterfront land for the planned 4,400-unit Olympic Village in Queens is being built on, and there is no other obvious site for that athlete housing.

Waterfront land for the village is important, Panepinto said, because a New York bid would likely again feature the use of water taxis to take athletes and spectators to competition, training and medical sites.

"Anything on the water now in New York City is so expensive," he said. "It's not like you can put it 30 miles out of town."

And without a planned West Side stadium to host opening and closing ceremonies, Panepinto said that New York might have to look to Giants Stadium, meaning that the bid would be split with New Jersey.

"I don't know how that plays out," he said. "You see the trouble they're having with the Super Bowl: Is it a New York or New Jersey game?"

But on the plus side, the city already has a lot of facilities that can be used: Madison Square Garden for boxing; Brooklyn's Barclays Center for basketball; Randall's Island for track, as well as Yankee Stadium and Citi Field.

And the indoor track facility in Ocean Breeze also would be online, meaning track events could be held there as well if it passes Olympic muster. That means that many facilities won't have to be built from scratch.

But a larger question looms, according to Panepinto: Does New York need the Olympic Games?

"New York is already a prestige city," he said. "What is the benefit?"

And Panepinto points out that Olympic Games simply don't make money.

"You're making a multi-billion dollar investment for 19 days of competition," he said. "It never works out financially."

New York aside, Panepinto said, the U.S. needs to land a Games soon.

"It's been too long," he said. "The USOC needs the international credibility. It needs to have an America-based Games. They need to start asserting the leverage it has because of the TV revenue."

City Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island/Brooklyn), looking to run for borough president next year, said he was "intrigued" by the idea of New York hosting the Games.

"I wasn't terribly excited about it last time," he said. "I didn't think we could get it. But I'm more open to the idea, having gone through that process. I see the vision."

But he agreed that it would be an "extremely difficult effort to mount."

Said Oddo, "I'm still not sold that, on balance, it's a net plus for the host city." 